No Matter What
by EchoResonance
Summary: Over two hundred years, and in the face of the woman I love, I have yet to learn rationality. Can I fix this...this MESS that the bloody DreamSnatcher created for me-for us? DISCONTINUED. Sorry, but I've lost all inspiration on how to continue
1. Chapter 1

_**Bones might be slightly OOC, more so toward the end, but I really wanted to capture the overall emotion of the scene, and that required a little of creative license**_

I heard her the moment the plane shut off, talking as quietly as I had ever heard her with someone. My insides burned with rage when I heard the reply. _Tepesh_. Damn show dog; he was with my wife. I was already inside, heading in the direction of the voices, when I paused. I could hear Kitten's thoughts, and they were…less than pleased.

_Fuck, not fast enough. I changed the damn flight for a reason. Fucking pilot. Oh well, maybe Vlad was right. We might as well resolve this now._

"About time," muttered the other vampire.

I caught the undercurrent of sadness, of pain, in her mind before her mental walls slammed into place, leaving me briefly disoriented, as they always did.

She had been the one to change the flight? Of course she had. Why was I surprised? I shouldn't have expected anything else. I resumed my pace, all but sprinting to the room I knew she was in.

"It's about time," the show dog repeated. A slight thump followed those words, followed by an amused chuckle. "Violent woman, aren't you?" Another thump. "Calm down. It will be fine."

A long sigh.

"Your definition of fine must be different than mine, Vlad."

I pushed into the room just as Vlad put his hand over Kitten's. I barely held myself where I was. As it were, I'm sure that my eyes had flashed bright green, and I felt my fangs rubbing against my tongue. Kitten had been fiddling with something in her hand; when I came in, her hand clenched around it. Behind the desk sat Donald. At his shoulder stood Cooper. The old man stood up when I entered.

"You were not given clearance to la—"

"Sod off," I interrupted. My eyes were on Cat's left hand, the one that had clenched into a fist. She followed my gaze and moved her fist from my line of sight.

"Why are you here?" Tepesh was the one to break the mounting silence, and I bristled.

"I'm here for my wife, show dog," I snarled.

"You have no wife."

Her voice was fat and cold. I froze.

"Excuse me?"

She blinked. Her face was hard; the achingly familiar expressionless mask, that tormented me every time she wore it.

"You have no wife. Isn't that what you told Fabian?"

I relaxed. That much, at least, I could explain.

"I was _lying_, pet," I told her, stepping forward. "I was already being watched. I couldn't give myself away by passing messages to you through Fabian. The same went for the whole Cannell mess. All I did was take her and various other women to my home, and drank them and green-eyed them into thinking they'd had quite the night. After they were unconscious, all I had to do was strip them and put them in bed together, and their minds came to their own conclusions."

I made to touch her arm, but she brushed me away, and my stomach lurched. A bitter scent hung around her, a mixture of both sadness and of anger, however well she hid her thoughts.

"That's a shame," she said in that same bland voice. "Because if you thought celibacy under the _pretense_ of cheating would earn you any points, you're sadly mistaken."

She and Tepesh rose to their feet simultaneously. Her fisted hand remained on the desk; the other still held the show dog's.

"'Bye, Bones."

Her hand left the desk, and she moved to brush past me. My arm shot out, stopping her, and Tepesh stiffened.

"You are not leaving without me, Kitten," I growled. "Not yet."

She laughed without mirth. It sounded like breaking glass to me, compared with her other, true laughter, and it frightened me more than I would care to admit.

"_You_ left _me_, _Crispin_." She spat my name out as though a foul taste accompanied it. "Not the other way around."

The hot, bitter scent was beginning to rise, and she tried to shove past me, but I did not budge. It didn't escape my notice that her hands trembled ever so slightly, and there was a distinctive shine to her eyes.

"Let us through, _mate_," Tepesh rumbled. I didn't spare him so much as a glance. Cat was glaring furiously at me, her stormy gray eyes laced with green. I couldn't help my reaction at having her so close. Warmth started to creep through me, coiling dangerously low in my abdomen. In my peripheral vision, the old Romanian prince's scowl deepened.

"Don't bother with the green eyes," she snapped, and suddenly quite a different hot, burning pain sliced through my stomach.

Caught off guard, I winced slightly, and looked down. One of her silver knives was buried in my abdomen. Without showing how much that stung, I jerked it out. Tepesh gave a loud, unconvincing cough that surely hid laughter.

_Wanker_, I thought irrelevantly.

"Kitten—"

"_Don't_ call me that," she snarled, and her cool façade cracked at last.

First anger, then hurt, then overwhelming agony flashed across her face, through her mental walls. Briefly I glimpsed her recent sleepless nights, felt how her throat had ached, how her heart had as well. She took a shaky breath and hastily resurrected her shields, mending them. Her face cleared of any traitorous thought or emotion. But those steely eyes remained open books.

"Out of the way," growled Tepesh.

"Bite me show dog!" I snapped.

"Be careful what you wish for," he warned.

"Enough!" Cat snapped, slapping both of us on our chests. "That's more than enough from both of you! The last thing I need to deal with right now is a pissing contest between the two of you! Vlad, we're leaving. Bones, let us out. _Now_."

I didn't move, and she pushed a hand through her hair in aggravation. I remembered how it felt to slide my own fingers through those crimson locks.

"Damnit, Bones. You can argue til you're blue in the face—so, forever—but we _are_ leaving."

"Not until we talk," I said softly.

"There's nothing to talk about," she replied. "I already tried that, remember? I begged you, I _pleaded _with you not to leave, at least until we talked. But it looks to me like you were one hundred percent right. There's nothing to say that would change anything. I made a mistake, believing I was doing the only thing I could. There are two things I know how to do; protect, and kill. I thought I was protecting you, and all of the others. I thought you were in trouble, because you'd neglected to tell me something of rather _grave importance._ But, nonetheless, I made a mistake. And of course, you got pissed. And you left. End of fucking story."

I stared at her, and this was one of those rare moments in my long life when I had absolutely no words to utter.

"Cat…Maybe you should listen to—"

"I'm through listening!" Kitten cried in exasperation.

The bittersweet scent of grief crested over me in a huge wave as she lost her shaky hold on her emotions. Her face cracked, and again her thoughts danced across it. Her shields, however, remained intact.

"I am fucking tired of hearing and seeing things and having to wonder every damn time whether or not they're _true_! I've had enough of that from my family. I don't need that in any of my other relationships as well!"

"You still don't trust me," I murmured, hurt.

There was a dull ache in the back of my throat, one that had nothing to do with blood. She gave another harsh laugh.

"Imagine that," she snorted, but her anger was half-hearted. She just looked very, very weary. "I wish I could Bones, I really do, but I just can't."

I snorted contemptuously, anger flaring up inside me for the first time.

"One little farce. Just one act is all it takes for you to lose faith in me?" I demanded.

"For starters, that's all it took for _you_ to lose faith in _me_," Cat retorted, and now her anger was building as well. "And you weren't _acting_ when you left! That also wasn't the first time you'd tried something like that."

"When did I _ever_—"

"Felicity. Cannell. When I left the first time and you munched on Annett. When you realized that Gregor's blood could break Mencheres' damn mind-lock thing. Need I go on?"

Tepesh let out a low whistle.

"You're quite the misler, aren't you?" he mocked.

I lunged. I couldn't help it. Fury consumed me, and shame clawed at me, destroying my sense of reason. She was right. Completely and totally justified in her anger and her hurt. And that buried me in all of those negative emotions that never fail to bring out the worst in a man. And so I attacked Tepesh. Cat shrieked in rage; Don and Cooper swore, lunging as far away as the room would allow; Tepesh ignited and threw me off.

"Bones! Stop it!" Cat shouted, leaping between us. She brandished another knife. Tepesh stood across the room, forearms pulsing with scarlet flames.

"Kitten, step aside," I growled.

"No, Bones. And quite calling me that," she answered. "This is enough from you."

Cat shouldered past me and stood by the doorway, watching the former Romanian prince with a cold expression. The fire on Tepesh's arms sputtered out, and he preceded her out of the door without so much as a backward glance. I turned numbly to watch them. The show dog was already out of sight in the hall, but Cat lingered. She stood there, watching me with such a sorrowful expression that shame welled up inside me once again, closing my throat.

"Kitten…" I whispered.

"You were right, Bones," she sighed, equally soft.

"Right?" I repeated. I realized what she meant only when her thoughts once more leaked through her shields. She nodded, lifted her left hand, and uncurled her fingers.

"You were right. You have no wife."

She tipped her palm, and as that small object, the one that she'd been concealing from me, slid from it, she turned and was gone. I watched, agony tearing through me that was far worse than a thousand silver knives, as the delicate golden ring fell to the carpeted floor. The red diamond glinted mockingly in the harsh light of the office.


	2. Chapter 2

"Bloody show hound," I grumbled. "How arrogant."

"Bones, I must insist that you behave," Mencheres warned, slowing down the vehicle. "You will not start a feud with Vlad. If she does not wish to come with you, you should not begin a fight with him."

I snorted and gestured to the guards on the roof of the building.

"Whatever you say, Mencheres, but could you do something about them?"

"Of course," said my grandsire, and waved his hand. As one the guards were lifted into the air, their weapons parting company with them.

Inside I heard a mad scrambling, and a single heartbeat stutter, then pick up at almost double speed. Cat.

"Stay here." That was Tespesh's voice barking. A mental swell of protest emanated from Cat, bearing insults that I would have applauded any other time. But her thoughts cut off abruptly, and I saw through her eyes an image of the floating guards.

"Look."

After a moment, the show hound muttered "Mencheres."

I felt more than heard as Cat froze where she was, her mind careening to a halt. Her heart rate picked up, and her chest tightened. In fear? Not quite, although it was very similar.

"Stay here," Tepesh said again, softer this time. "I'll find out what he wants."

I snorted and stepped out of the car with Mencheres, striding to the large front doors. I sneered inwardly at the tacky dragon door knockers even as I all but threw them against the doors. Moments later, the door opened, and the crusty old vampire stood in the doorway.

"Mencheres. You are welcome in my home and may enter. You—" I heard the heartbeat stutter upstairs at the venom in his voice, likely guessing why it was there—may not."

I laughed, low and condescending. Upstairs, I heard a slight creak as I believe Cat gripped something a little more tightly than it preferred.

"Tepesh, I've come a long damned way to get here, and pretty as your little dragon door knockers are, I don't fancy spending more time outside admiring them."

Mencheres, ever the tactful, diplomatic one, spoke to Vlad patiently.

"Vlad, you know I cannot allow you to forbid entry to the co-ruler of my line. To do so would insult me as well, and I know you don't mean to do that."

"Let my men down," growled Tepesh.

"Of course," responded Mencheres, and several thumps followed the men falling to the ground. Any other time, I may have been amused.

"Very well, come in" he said, his tone that of a petulant child's. "But you'll abuse my hospitality if you venture even a foot up those stairs, and we both know who I'm talking to."

I followed Mencheres inside, laughing again, rudely.

"Really, mate, you're like a hound fretting over his scraps." I at least deserved that quip, all things being considered. "Careful you don't unwittingly combust, or you'll ruin this fetching imitation Persian rug."

Mencheres shot me a warning look, which I ignored. I was just itching for an excuse to have at it with the bloody Romanian Prince. He must have known he'd have it coming.

"And I have had enough of your comments about my home!" he thundered. A few sparks shot from his hands. "What do you want, not that you stand a fuck-all chance of getting it, _mate_."

I sensed alarm leaking through well-built shields upstairs, as well as suspicion, and curiosity. Clearly she was wondering why I was so enjoying getting her _friend_ riled up.

"I'm here for Cat," I said evenly, proud of myself for keeping the longing from both my voice and my scent.

Emotion crested in the mind upstairs, almost dizzying with its intensity. Anger, hope, denial, sadness. Then, just as stumbling in its effect, it vanished. Locked behind another impenetrable shield.

"If she doesn't want to see you, then you've wasted your time," Tepesh barked, a clear challenge.

Indecision flashed for just a moment, and it wasn't mine.

"You misunderstand Tepesh. I'm not here to see her. I'm taking her with me."

"I'll fry you where you stand," Tepesh rumbled. With a whooshing sound, scarlet flames burst into being on his arms, crackling and smoking.

I drew two knives from my belt and drew them across each other. A thump upstairs told me that someone had just been shoved aside.

"Try it, show dog," I hissed.

"Stop!"

All three of us whipped around to look at the source of the voice at the top of the stairs. Bright, scarlet red hair. Flawless skin, with just a hint of the ethereal, vampiric glow. Large, steel gray eyes that revealed nothing. I fought to keep my hands from trembling slightly. I'd missed her. So much, it hurt. But she wasn't about to know that. Fabian drifted behind her, looking anxious.

Her stormy gaze took in first Tepesh's flaming arms, then my knives, then Mencheres, and finally flickered to me. I'd gotten a haircut since she'd last seen me, and it was cropped close to my head now. I looked at her with a hooded gaze, and something flashed across her face, too fast for me to be sure what it was. The only scent that hung around her was the hot, bitter scent of anger, and I was sure that was intentional.

"What do you think you're doing?" she demanded. Her voice was cold. That was the hardest thing to hear.

"Getting you," I responded, and raised an eyebrow in a silent dare.

The angry scent around her spiked and thickened. She narrowed her eyes.

"And what if I don't want to be _gotten_?"

I looked between her and Tepesh, then gave a menacing smile that was more a baring of teeth.

"Then, as his guest, Tepesh will feel honor-bound to defend you. That means he and I will have to fight, and he's quite brassed off already. I reckon he'll try to burn me to ashes straightaway. Of course, that's if I don't rip his heart open with silver first." Personally, a selfish part of me hoped that she would refuse to come, just so that I would have the pleasure of doing exactly what I said. "So, if you refuse to come with me, one of us will be dead in the next few minutes. Or, you can come along and we'll both live."

Tepesh ground out a curse that rose Cat's eyebrows before she turned to me.

"Are you fucking serious? We've already been over this—_you_ left _me._ Now you're about to fight to the death _over_ me? What the hell kind of game is this?" she demanded furiously.

"No game, luv," I answered. "Just retrieving what's mine. You might want to decide soon. Vlad looks as though he's about to explode."

She glanced over at Tepesh. I hadn't been exaggerating. The ancient Prince did indeed look ready to detonate at any moment.

"You come into my home to blackmail my friend?" he snarled, the fire licking all the way up to his shoulders. "I'll—"

"I'm leaving."

Tepesh threw an incredulous look at Cat. She reached out, completely ignoring the fire on his hands. A flicker of anger sparked in my chest at the gesture, and at the fact that the flames on his hands faded so that he could take her outstretched hand.

"Don't," she said. "I couldn't…"

I caught a couple words that she undoubtedly only want Tepesh to hear. _Couldn't…something…happened…_

A few of her thoughts—shadows, really—leaked out of her mind again, but I caught the gist of it. She was furious with me as sure as hell was for the damned, and she'd like to burn me a bit herself. But she wasn't about to stand by and watch either me or Vlad get killed because of stubborn testosterone.

Clearly she understood from the look in my eyes that if it came to a fight between Vlad and I, I wouldn't strike to wound.

Tepesh tugged on his beard. The look he gave me may have frightened someone of less experience than I, but I just smiled mockingly.

"I won't forget this."

"I certainly hope you don't."

Scowling, Cat brushed past both of us, and if I had been human, my own heart may have jumped at the feather-light touch of our shoulders.

"Are you coming, or not?" she said, already outside.

"Of course," I answered.

She didn't wait for me, instead taking the arm that my Grandsire offered her. Fabian trailed after them as they walked out to the car.

"Love your home," I told Vlad with a scornful bow, before heading out after the others.

His response was hurled at my back, and I smirked even as Cat shook her head in front of me. She raked a hand through her crimson hair.

* * *

><p>It was a half an hour before Cat spoke, taking off the headphones I'd given her right when she got in the car.<p>

"What the hell do you think you were doing? Vlad may have burned you to nothing more than a smear on his floor if I hadn't gone with you."

I snorted, momentarily both amused and exasperated. There she went again, with her irritating habit of forgetting that, as a Master vampire, I was more than capable of taking care of myself. Then again, would I ever have fallen in love with her, if she had been any different than she was? Which was protective, crazy, and completely irrational.

"I didn't doubt your actions for a moment. You've never been able to turn down playing the hero to rescue me."

I was allowed that quip, when one considered what she had put me through by continuously doing just that. I don't think it was any accident that the word _Bastard_ slipped from behind her shields, as well as a slew of conflicting, maddening emotions that I wished heartily I could read the reasons behind. Not that I couldn't guess.

"You'll regret this," she sighed, settling back in her seat. _Just like I will_.

I snorted again, not bothering to glance back at her.

"I don't doubt that either, Kitten."

_But there are so many things I regret more._


End file.
